Lebanon PM-designate gives Hezbollah deadline to join cabinet

Lebanon's prime minister-designate threatened to form a new government without Hezbollah soon unless the powerful group's allies agree to his proposed cabinet, a senior political source said on Friday.

Lebanon has been without a government since March 2013. Prime Minister Najib Mikati resigned after intense political squabbles, exacerbated by sectarian divisions over the civil war in neighboring Syria, made it nearly impossible to legislate. Mikati has been running a caretaker cabinet with minimal powers since then. Tamim Salam, the prime minister-designate, has seized recent momentum in political negotiations to try to form a government. (Reuters)